


Arsonist's Lullabye

by danniburgh



Category: Andrew Hozier-Byrne (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, F/M, Fake Character Death, No Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic Romance, Sexual Tension, This Was A Dream I Had, andrew being the sweetest, hacker shit, soft stuff, somebody wanna kill my boi, targeted andrew
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:15:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22286203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danniburgh/pseuds/danniburgh
Summary: "All you have is your fire, and the place you need to reach, don't you ever tame your demons, but always keep 'em on a leash"Annie King's story was never simple or easy, was never sensitive or pretty, Annie King's story was from the beginning hard and sad, was a story she swore to never repeat.Annie King knew how to do only one thing, and she was the best at it, but her good heart made her walk away from the only job she had ever known. Until a really good deal knocked on her door, then she couldn't say no.
Relationships: Andrew Hozier-Byrne/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	1. What a nice deal

"Hi, gorgeous," said Annie, entering her small apartment of one single bedroom and one bathroom, being greeted by Pepper, her cat, who after six lonely hours, was begging for a little bit of attention.

Annie left her messengers bag on the little table next to the door, hung her keys on the keyholder and took her shoes off, the white cat climbed to the kitchen table and sat while watching Annie walking towards the cabinets, looking for Pepper's food.

The sensation of her phone vibrating interrupted her, she took it from the back pocket of her jeans and without looking at the caller id, answered the call.

"Yeah?" she put the phone between her ear and her shoulder and continued serving dinner to Pepper.

" _Tomorrow, go to the address you are going to receive, go_ " a masculine voice, almost electronic, told her, Annie frowned, she left the cats food plate on the table and took the phone on her hand.

"Who's this?" she asked, watching the cat eating unbothered, from the other side of the line nobody answered, and then the call ended. Annie stayed there, leaning on the kitchen counter with her eyes lost and the phone in one hand "no, fuck this" she murmured, left the phone on the counter and dedicated the next twenty minutes to fix herself some dinner, having Pepper run around between her feet and the tv making noise in the background.

* * *

"Hey, Annie!" the girl stopped walking towards the college's exit and turned around at the hearing of her name being shouted, she saw Lucy, one of her classmates, walking to her with a tired smile on her face, Annie tried to give the smile back in the warmest way she could and waited for the girl to catch up to her.

"What's up, Lu?" she asked, the girl put one of her hands on her chest, agitated.

"Did you do professor Edward's assignment?" she questioned, Annie looked at her with a raised eyebrow and nodded "do you think you can tell me how to do it?" she asked, Annie smiled with the corner of her lips and nodded again "you're a sunshine, Annie, really" she said, Annie gave her a full smile this time and opened her bag, which she carried on a shoulder to take a notebook out, she opened it and Lucy stood next to her while Annie started explaining how the criptation and cifration system they were learning that week worked.

While Annie spoke and Lucy looked at her notes, an unknown guy approached them and without saying a word gave Annie a quick slap on the chest, near the thorax area, pushing her without much force, Annie gasped in surprise as a first reaction and put her hand on her chest, looking down, immediately she saw a soft carton black card between her hands, she turned in the guy's direction and noticed he was wearing a blue hoodie, she couldn't look at his face.

"Hey!" Annie shouted, the guy didn't answered and kept walking in a hurry, Annie looked at the card she was holding, it looked like a business card, with the sole difference that this one only had an address on it.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked, Annie looked at her and nodded slowly, playing with the card on her hand, Lucy sighed, murmured something about harassment on the campus and looked back at Annie's notes, then Annie remembered the called she received the night before, took out her phone from her back pocket and directly opened the received text messages, saw two she hadn't opened, received the night before from a blocked number, opened them and read the first one, it was the same address printed on the black card she was holding, and the second one, just had one word in it.

"Go"

* * *

Annie entered to her apartment and found strange the fact that it felt empty, her cat didn't run to her feet as he did daily and certainly the house didn't feel the same as when she left, it felt cold and empty, dark and a little creepy.

"Pepper?" she called, she took off her bag and left it on the table by the door along with her keys, she walked inside without taking her shoes off and looked for the cat on the small living room, then entered the bedroom and looked for him under the bed, calling for him, Annie looked up and noticed the emergency exit window open, she frowned and walked towards it, swearing she had closed it before leaving to college "Pepper?" she called again, sticking her head out of the window, she found the cat tied to one of the fire escape platform bars, scared and shaking. Annie climbed upon the edge of the window and struggled to not look down and feel sick, as she was seven stories away from the floor, she took the cat with a shaky hand, untied him carefully, Pepper climbed her arm and grasped her sleeve with his claws, Annie got inside her bedroom with him "who left you out there?" she asked to nobody, took Pepper on her arms and got him close to her chest, the cat kept shaking and at the felling of Annie's body warmth he started meowing. Annie didn't know if it was of fear, of coldness or happiness, but she grabbed a small blanket and wrapped his white fur with it, sat at the edge of the bed with him and held him close to her to help him get warm and calm him down.

Then she felt her phone vibrating on her pocket, pulled it out and with it she pulled out the black card she had received that morning, that fell to the floor, she left it there and looked at the called id, the caller was a blocked number, Annie sighed and hung up.

Pepper took about fifteen minutes to stop meowing and took another twenty minutes to stop shaking, Annie took him in her arms to the kitchen and served him his plate of food, really confused and a bit scared, she had enough implied proofs to know somebody had broken into her house with the sole purpose of make her feel threatened, and the calls of that blocked number had something to do about it. They wanted her to go to that address, and Annie knew that once she did what they were asking, there was not point of return. And that everything she had done for the last two years of her life, were gonna be trashed.

She tried to erase those thoughts of her head, realizing her stomach was begging for food, then she started taking out ingredients from the fridge and putting them on the kitchen counter, grabbed out a small pot from under the table and took it to the sink, opening the tap to fill it with water, her phone started vibrating again.

"Dammit" she said, took her phone and declined the call again, she left the phone on the counter, opened a cabinet to take out of it a jar of uncooked pasta, when she took it out a white card fell to the counter. Annie frowned in confusion and left the jar near the stove, taking the card, it was plastic, completely white, with no impressions and with a black line going through the back horizontally, Annie analysed it and for a moment she felt a pression on the nape of her head, like that pression somebody feels when they're being watched, she looked at the window, for a second expecting to find someone spying through the glass, but there wasn't anyone, there couldn't be, she lived in the seventh floor.

The water was still running and the pot was full of it, overboarding the pot and running to the sinkhole.

"Shit" she said, and rushed to close the tap, she still had the card on her hand, she sighed, trying to calm down and left the card fell into the floor to grabbed the pot by its holders and drained the excess water, took it to the burner on the stove, grabbed a box of matches, turned one on and held it close to the burner, opened the gas and the stove started warming the water up.

Annie heard her phone vibrating again on top of the counter.

"Motherfucker" she swore again, grabbed the device and answered the call "who is this?" she said annoyingly, on the other side of the line no sound was heard, Annie was about to hang up when a monotonous, computerized, and known feminine voice started speaking. 

" _Hello, Annie_ " the voice greeted, Annie stood there, paralyzed for a few seconds, she didn't know what to say, she wasn't sure of even wanting to do it, she wanted to hang up but her hands weren't responding to her wantings in that moment and just stood there with the phone on her ear " _I hope my call doesn't take you by surprise that much_ " the voice said.

"Only the necessary, Neva" Annie answered "was it you the one calling me?" she asked.

" _Yeah_ " she said "and I need you to go to that address I sent" she asked, Annie smiled unknowingly and shook her head unconsciously " _I have something for you_ " she said.

"What makes you think I want what you have for me?" Annie asked, turning around to see the water boiling on top of the stove, Annie put the phone between her ear and her shoulder and dropped some pasta into the boiling water.

" _You saw what happened to Pepper, Annie_ " Neva said, Annie sighed, frustrated " _going it's not that hard, Annie_ " said Neva, emphasizing on her name, Annie closed her eyes trying to find a good reason inside her head to hang up the phone, cook her dinner and then disappearing the next morning " _we do not want to make this harder, right?_ " she finished, the line closed and all Annie could hear was the sound of the line unoccupied.

She put down her phone and ponderated for a few seconds the possibilities she had, she knew what Neva was capable of, she knew it for a long time, she knew that she couldn't escape any thing she wanted her to do, she knew she was cornered and that at that moment the only thing in danger wasn't her cat, but everything she had built over the past two years.

She couldn't say no, but she could condition, because despite of them having her between a rock and a hard place, they needed her, her and her abilities, and Annie was going to hang on that as much as she could.

So she turned off the stove, she picked up the white card from the floor, snuggled Pepper for a few seconds and walked to her room, where she knew she'd left the other card with the address, she realized she didn't know which specific place of the city she had to go so she took her phone and typed th address on the maps app, immediately the app marked a twenty minute trip, she blocked the phone and put it on her back pocket alongside the two cards, she walked to the door, took her keys and her bag from the table, she wasn't ready to face her old job, but she had to, or everything would go to shit again.

* * *

Annie got down of the car and looked at the building the route on her phone had make drive to, it was a hotel, a bit fancy, she smiled to herself, remembering where they used to make her go, she walked away from her car and went up the stairwell that went to the main entrance, the doorkeeper opened the door for her and she walked to the reception counter, looked at her watch, it was almost ten o'clock, there was just a guy tending the reception.

"Hi" she said, the guy gave her a corporate fake yet kind smile she had seen every service employee give to people.

"Hello, how can I help you miss?" he asked, Annie took out of her pocket the two card she had been given and slid them through the with marble counter, the guy glanced at them and immediately took the phone, still having his starched smile on his face, Annie didn't hear what he said or who he said it to, but less than a minute later a call-boy went to her side "the boy will take you to your destiny, miss" the reception guy told her, Annie tried to give him a smile but it stayed on the try, the call-boy started to walk towards the elevators and Annie hurried to follow him after taking the cards from the counter.

Both of them entered at the same time, the boy pushed the button to the top floor and the two of them went up surrounded by a suffocating silence, Annie was playing with the cards between her fingers, feeling the time running as slow as a turtle crossed a road, and thanked profoundly when the elevator reached the top floor and the doors opened directly on the hall, Annie stepped out of the elevator.

"The room you're looking for is at the end of the hall to the right" the boy said, Annie turned around to see him and the doors closed before she could say a word.

"What the fuck" she whispered, turned to the right and just as the call-boy had said, there was a door at the end of the hall, she walked towards it trying to keep herself in posture, keep the rhythm and keep her head at a specific angle so the cameras wouldn't record her face completely, she reached the door and noticed an electronic lock that needed a card to be opened, she slided the white card through the machine and nothing happened, she realized her hands were shaking, she slided the card again and again, nothing happened, she sighed and turned the card around, slided it again and a sharp sound indicated the door was open "what a dumbshit" she said, taking the doorknob and opening the door just enough to slide her body through the opening, she entered and closed the door behind herself carefully.

She found herself inside a completely normal hotel room, as any other, she stood on the entrance for a few seconds not knowing what to do. She compared her current situation with all those times Neva had summon her years ago, with all those places she had her go, with all those dirty and small places, she smiled to herself at the thought of something big happening to the person behind the robotic voice she called Neva in the years she had stopped working to make the meeting places go from dirty motels at the city's outskirts to four stars hotels right in downtown.

Her phone started vibrating in her pocket and she answered the call as soon as she grabbed it.

"Neva?" she asked.

" _Annie, I see you are inside_ " the voice said at the other side of the line "please make yourself at home" she said, Annie smiled to herself, in disbelief, Neva's speech hadn't change at all.

"Why am I here, Neva?" Annie asked.

" _I told you, I have something for you_ " she answered " _go to the nightstand, please_ " Neva told her, Annie obeyed, found a folder and took it by an edge " _do you have the file?"_ Neva asked, Annie nodded, knowing she could see her "open it" she said.

"Hold on a sec" Annie said, she put the phone down and put on the speaker, then left the phone on the nightstand and opened the file "what am I looking at?" she asked, the first page of the file was a social security sheet, she didn't bother to read the name, she started looking through it and noticed a few bank account statuses, some loose sheets that looked part of a resume, and some with medical histories.

" _The owner of that file is named Andrew Hozier_ " talked Neva " _there is all the information you need to know him_ " Annie nodded again.

"What do I have to do?" she asked, Neva stayed in silence for a few seconds.

" _You already know what you have to do, Annie_ " she answered, Annie sighed heavily.

"You know I don't do that anymore, Neva" Annie murmured, without getting her sight out of the papers.

" _You have to do it_ " the voice said " _I suppose you have an idea of what could happen if you do not"_ she told her, Annie shook again " _you have done it before, I think you can do it one last time_ " Neva said, Annie raised her head at the last two words.

"Last time?" Annie asked.

" _Last_ " Neva assured her.

"And what did this guy do anyway?" Annie asked, Neva stayed in silence again for a few seconds.

" _He adjudicated himself some millions of dollars that were not his_ " Annie frowned " _he stole from a children's hospital_ " spat the voice, Annie raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Shit" was the only thing she could say.

" _I want you to get the money back and give it to the original owner_ " Neva asked her " _it is on the file, and then I want you to kill him_ " she said. Annie exhaled heavily and stayed in silence " _there is three millions for you at the end of all this_ " Annie opened her eyes, impressed, three million dollars was a lot of money, and God knew it would fo her really well.

"What a nice deal" said Annie, grabbing her phone from the nightstand and hanging up the call. She put the folder inside her bag and got out the room just as she entered, in silence.


	2. Cold night

"Do I pour you another one?" Andrew shook his head and reached from the armchair over the small table to cover the empty whiskey glass in front of him with two of his fingers "Andy, come on, drink another one" the guy holding the bottle at the other side of the round table was smirking, threatening with his smile to pour his glass full.

"No, Alex" Andrew murmured, blinking heavily, giving him back an unconscious smile "six whiskey glasses are enough" he said with his irish accent, now thicker because of the alcohol, Alex shook his head, making his long straight hair move at the same rhythm "I think I should go home" Andrew whispered, more to himself than to his friend, Alex rolled his eyes at the sound of Andrew's words and looked at his watch.

"Andy, it's eleven o'clock" Alex recriminated "are you really gonna go hide in your house to lament the last days of your life?" he asked him incredulous, Andrew looked at him, frowning in confusion.

"Yes" Andrew nodded, making one of his curls fall on his cheek "maybe I'm gonna go lock myself in my house to lament the last days of my life" he said, standing up, pushing the table with a little more strength than necessary "and maybe not only the last days, but the last weeks, the last few months, hell, even the last two years, fuck it, I'm gonna lament my entire life now that I'm on it" he said between teeth, grabbing his phone from the table and walking towards the bar door, hearing Alex call his name behind him.

He got out to the cold street at a slow pace, behind him he heard the bar door opening again.

"Andrew" Alex called, Andrew stopped and turned around to face his friend "sorry, I'm sorry" he said, Andrew let out a heavy sigh and stayed in silence, a waiter got out with their bill and handed it to Alex, Alex pulled out his wallet and took out a black card and handed it to the waiter, who entered the establishment again and Alex looked at his friend "forgive me" he said again "but you've been like this for two months" he said, running a hand through his hair, Andrew snorted, annoyed "someday you'll need to be yourself again" Alex said, shrugging at him.

"Fuck you, Alex" he spat, Alex frowned, confused "two months aren't enough, asshole" he said, and without expecting any response he turned around and started walking on the artificially lit streets of the city that had given him everything, and that also had taken it away.

* * *

Annie opened her apartment door and felt relieved when the first thing she heard was Pepper meowing.

"Hello, handsome" she greeted, receiving a meow as a greeting back, she turned on the lights and looked at her watch, it was after eleven, she hung the keys on the keyholder, took her shoes off and took her bag to the bedroom, left it on the bed, where Pepper climbed to and lied next to some pillows.

Annie entered the bathroom, took off her clothes to put on her pajama, while she was removing her makeup she started to come up with codes so she could break into the bank accounts Neva had given her, when she began to brush her teeth she remembered Neva hadn't given her a photograph of who was gonna be her new and last target with the file, then she got out of the bathroom with her toothbrush hanging out of her mouth, looked for her phone and sent to the blocked number a text with two words:

"The picture"

She finished her night routine with tranquility, she checked her phone and there was still no answer, she rolled her eyes, walked to her closet and from the highest shelf she took a wooden box where she kept hard drives and other types of storage units, she opened it and took an empty hard drive, she put back the box on its place, walked to her bed and sat on the edge, she grabbed her glasses from the nightstand and put them on, she settled in the middle of the mattress, trying not to disturb Pepper, and took her computer and the file out of her bag.

She tied her hair up on a ponytail while she waited the computer to start up and got ready to work, she pulled out all the pages from the file, reading them carefully and putting them down on the bed.

Her computer automatically opened her scanning and coding tools, Annie read her target's full name and after a quick stretch of her hand muscles, she connected the hard drive and started to work.

She broke into Andrew Hozier's few social media accounts almost immediately, then she found his photos.

"Hello, Andrew" she muttered "I'm sorry about this, handsome, but I really have rob you" she said, kept looking at some photos, asking herself if a man like him, with a confident expression, kind and quiet looking eyes and a smile that could charm anyone would be capable of doing everything Neva told her he did.

She kept looking at his social profiles, and didn't find any relevant information that'd make her job easier, any kind of password, any conversation about millionaire amounts of money.

"C'mon, Andrew" she said "gimme something solid, gimme something" she whispered when she only found conversations about books, music and a particularly private conversation with a woman that happened months back, and some information she already knew, nothing fishy.

Annie then broke into the first bank account Neva had proportionated her, which was a little harder.

"Let's see what you have around here" she said when she gained access, the first thing she did was searching for international bank accounts or affiliated accounts from fiscal paradise countries, but she found none "shit, nothing" she spat, tried to amplified the search and scanned the last twenty four months worth of bancary transactions by Andrew Hozier, looking for millionaire transactions, extravagant purchases, excessive payments, non-justifiable expenses and even cash withdrawals that exceeded the bancary limit, finding again nothing interesting "you've nothing" she spat again with a surprised grin.

She started to feel a bit frustrated, she sighed and grabbed one of the bank account statuses Neva gave her, and looked for a different account number she could break in.

"What do they want from you, Andrew?" she muttered, then an alert on the computer screen made her turn; someone was trying to get in her computer remotely.

"What the fuck?" Annie frowned in confusion, she dropped the papers she was holding and tried to run one of her safety programs to take the intruder out of her system, failing "dammit!" she spat and quickly started to shut down all her systems, without forgetting to execute both of her most important commands: the one that copied all her research into the hard drive and the one that deleted all sign of somebody ever breaking into systems illegally.

While her commands were working as fast as she ordered them to, Annie watched her computer being controlled by someone else, changing certain digits on the code she had written to break into the bank system.

"Who are you?" she asked while she grabbed her phone, turned on airplane mode and started filming what was happening on the screen, some code lines were being changed and a lot of them stopped making sense, they weren't coinciding neither with what she had typed, done and saved nor with a lot of the information she had received earlier that day anymore "what are you doing?" she asked again, then, coincidentally after her commands finished saving and deleting her research, her code started getting erased line by line.

Annie kept filming her screen, confused and surprised, holding her phone in one hand and disconnecting the hard drive from the computer with the other one, suddenly a download window appeared on the screen, Annie grinned in disbelief, and raised her eyebrows, the person who had broken into her system was trying to download all the information Annie kept in it.

"What are you doing, newbie*?" Annie whispered to herself while she watched the download bar moving forward by the second, then the computer notepad opened and Annie watched, certainly intrigued, as the cursor moved and characters started being written:

"Your research is trash, Annie King, try again, and this time DO IT RIGHT"

"Shit" she said, realizing someone working with or for Neva was watching over and interfering with her work, she stopped filming and started to re-write her security program manually, trying to stop whoever was invading her system, but the programmer stopped working half way in and shut down automatically, Annie felt her chest jumping, then she disconnected the computer from the satelital internet network she used to use, feeling really insecure about what to do next, for a moment, she didn't feel weird about Neva wanting to watch her over, it wasn't rare, she had always done it, mainly to make sure she did her job accordingly, but never, in any job Neva had given her in the past, had someone breaking into Annie's system and modifying her work, changing information and labeling her research.

Annie started fearing, and she didn't like that, her phone vibrated on the mattress, Annie shocked and grabbed it, there was a new message. She was sure she had turned off every network on the phone, the message was an encrypted file, sent by a blocked number, she didn't open, she turned on airplane mode, blocked the phone and stayed there, sitting on the bed, watching the frozen screen on the computer.

Annie's phone vibrated again.

"Fuck" she muttered, closed her eyes for a few seconds, turned to see her room's window, starting to feel increasingly unsafe and watched, then she took the device and read the new received message:

"The information you received is not correct, refer to the next file to collect the pertinent information"

The file the message meant was the same she had received minutes before, Annie started to feel really confused, she didn't understand why they were interfering with her work, didn't understand why they were getting rid of the small things she had collected, it didn't make any sense.

What was happening left one thing crystal clear; they didn't trust her anymore, and made her wonder some other stuff, like why was Neva so interested on erasing her programs, or why the person behind the voice she called Neva was sending new info and decrediting the info she already had, something that she's never done before.

Annie breathed a few times, trying to calm down and opened the file she had received, they were the same documents she had next to her on the bed, with the only difference that the bank account at the name of Andrew Hozier had a different number.

"What the hell is going on here?" she whispered, tried to analyse the documents closer but her phone's screen didn't allowed it, her mind became clear for a moment and from her phone and sent the file to print, the sound of the printer initiating the task on the living room was the only thing on her apartment that could be heard, Annie looked at nothing for a moment, trying to find an explanation to what was happening, for an instant she linked in her system's attack and the sudden change on the information with the fact that she found no sign of the money that Andrew allegedly stole anywhere, and, although the thought of it was crazy, she didn't dismiss it.

She looked at her computer and noticed through the piece of purple tape that covered her webcam that the led light that indicated the camera was on, turning on, somebody was trying to watch her through it, she looked at the connection bar and notices the computer was again connected to internet. She had lost complete control of her computer.

"Shit" she closed the laptop and immediately jumped off the bed towards the kitchen, with Pepper running behind her, she flipped around the computer on the kitchen counter and from the cutlery drawer she took out a long knife, which he used to force the computer open, she disconnected the computer's hard drive and the motherboard, she put them inside the microwave and pressed three times the number nine, the appliance started working and the metal pieces started to spark inside the microwave's four walls.

Annie stood in front of the microwave while her hard drive burnt inside it, her heart beating as fast as a runaway horse and breathing agitated, for a moment, the sparks and the flames the device were letting out catched her attention and Anne stood there, watching the incandescent movement of the fire through the microwave door's tempered glass.

The sound of the burning circuits pulled her out of her hypnosis and brought her back to the moment, she didn't understand what was happening, she wanted to but she couldn't. She felt tired and confused, something like that had ever happened to her, she had lost control of her work tool completely and now she had nothing to finish the job Neva had asked her to do with, and she'd lose the money Neva assured her she would get, besides she was sure Neva would fulfill her threats.

She didn't know why Neva was so interested in Andrew Hozier, if before her eyes he was just an unethical thief with really good ways to hide millions of dollars, she didn't get why her employer was so determined to make her get rid of him.

But the hacking to her system had been dangerous and suspiciously bad done, she knew Neva only hired the best people on the field, she knew that breach on her program could only had two sources: either they wanted it to seem as a random attack by and obvious inexperienced beginner or an actual inexperienced person with the idea of what to look for had done it.

A noise in the hall pulled her out of her own mind again, Annie then started to fell tensioned, she ran to turn off the kitchen lights and stood there, alerted to any other sound or movement she walked to the door and through the eyehole she saw somebody walking through the hall, right between her door and her front neighbour's door, at that moment the only thing that lighted up the apartment were the flames inside the microwave. Annie rushed to the appliance and disconnected it from the wall, leaving the place in complete darkness bit by bit.

Pepper jumped to the kitchen table, Annie took him into her arms and stood in the middle of the place, in the dark, with the cat purring next to her chest.

She didn't know what to do, she was sure the person outside her door was looking for her, she knew there wouldn't be long until somebody came for her and made her do anything Neva wanted her to do. She didn't had other choice but to get out of there.

She walked cautiously to the table next to the front door and while she held Pepper with one hand, she grabbed her bag and also her keys with the other, trying to make as little noise as possible she packed the keys, she put Pepper down and walked to grab her computer, which she also packed, she began to moderate her breathing so she could concentrate on her own movements and she rushed to the printer to pick up the file she just printed, then, light headed and a little dizzy, she went to the room, followed by the cat and closing the door behind her to pack the papers with the file on the bed, and the hard drive.

She saw her phone on the bed, she knew they could intervene it as well and track her, and the least she needed in the moment was some tough roughneck gorilla sent by Neva or whoever it wanted to, chasing her down wherever she decided to go, so she didn't take it, she rushed to her closet, from where she pulled the wooden box, a coat, a pair of sneakers and from the bottom of the closet, inside a shoe box, a gun.

She hurried to get dressed and put everything inside her bag, which she hung across her chest, she walked to the bedroom's window and opened it as quietly as she could, she took Pepper back in her arms and looked at him.

"Please, Pepper" she spoke to him in a whisper "don't make a noise," she asked, almost begged him, the cat looked at her back and Annie exhaled quietly, then, dressed in pajamas, with a dirty white cat in one arm, her heart beating at a hundred miles per hour, an infernal fear of heights and confidential information about a person she didn't know hanging from her shoulder, Annie climbed on the edge of the window and got out to the emergency exit platform and, in a hurried but quiet pace, she started going down the ladder, feeling the cold of the night go through every inch of her skin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *newbie: a hacker that has access to hacking tools, can use them but is unconscious about how programs and computers work.
> 
> hope you like this one!


	3. Sadness and unease

"It's ok, Pepper, it's ok" Annie said, trying to reassure the cat that was scratching the co-pilot's seat next to her as she drove away from her apartment building, and also to reassure herself.

She made it out of the building with almost to physical scratch, she got on her car and started driving away with no destination whatsoever, she was trying to come up with a plan as she couldn't use any of the plans of escape and disappearance she had for the sole reason that Neva knew about every single one of them, and at that exact moment, with the cat anxiously scratching fabric, with her hands sweating and sliding all over the steering wheel, with her feet feeling stiff and her shoulders completely tensed, her mind was only thinking of one single address. One that she couldn't go to. She just couldn't.

* * *

> " _Hello, Anastasia_ " Annie heard the well known robotic voice of her boss at the other end of the line.
> 
> "Hi, Neva" she responded, seeing her foot moving frantically as she waited for the voice to speak.
> 
> " _I have been informed of your desire to leave your employment_ " Neva said, Annie snorted quietly, trying to cope with her nervousness.
> 
> "You've been informed right" she said.
> 
> " _You have been such a good worker for me, Anastasia_ " the robotic voice said, Annie rolled her eyes, as if she didn't know " _and because of that, I will be forever grateful_ " Annie frowned at the sound of the last five words, Neva wasn't like that, she wasn't like some sort of mafia boss that rolled with thankfulness and loyalty, she functioned on efficiency and discreteness, and to Annie, her saying those words, didn't mean a good sign " _I will not withhold you, Anastasia_ " Annie wanted to smile, but she knew it'll be too soon to do it right then " _just be aware of me needing you one more time_ " there it was, the last condition, she had imagined Neva wouldn't let her go that easy, she knew she wouldn't, and it was fine by her, as long as after that, Neva would just leave her alone.
> 
> "Shoot" Annie said "what do you want.
> 
> " _Oh, no, Annie_ " Neva told her " _it will not be today_ " Annie felt her blood dropping to her feet " _it will surely be soon, you just wait for our call_ " and the call ended.
> 
> Annie didn't move, she couldn't, she felt the temperature of her body decreasing, she felt the same fear and the same alarm and the same panic and the same unease she felt every time she had to end somebody's life, she knew the condition was coming, she knew she wouldn't be released that easily, she prepared for it, but the way the robotic voice had told her that even in the future, the one Annie wanted to start from scratch, she would be calling her to make another job, made her entire body shake in terror.

* * *

"She told me, Pepper" she muttered, more to herself than to the cat "she told me she would need me and I forgot, Peps, I fucking forgot" she started to feel the lump in the throat that preceded an inevitable need to cry "I made myself believe I could have a normal life, as if life were that damn easy" she said, her eyes started to water, her voice broke and she felt like her life was about to end "I can't fucking do this" she said, made a turn on the first exit she saw and pulled the car to the side.

Annie looked at the windshield, not really looking outside, just watching the tiny water drops on the glass, gasping for air while the tears streamed down her eyes and the anxiety of it all started to kick in. She knew she had to so something, something to end the trouble she was in, something to fix the situation, to make it better. She knew she had to do something to feel safe again, to start over a second time, to have a newer life. But she couldn't think of anything. At that moment all she wanted right then to do was cry.

And she did, she broke down, she covered her face with both hands and started sobbing, trying to just let it all out, trying to feel as much as she could feel in that exact moment, because if she was sure of something, it was that there'd be just one moment to let herself feel, and that moment was right there; her inside her car, in her pajamas, being all tensed shoulders, sweaty palms and stiff feet, with an anxious cat and the implied responsibility of ending a man's life.

She felt Pepper's little paws on her thighs, she uncovered her face and saw the cat purring his way onto her lap, she started petting him, trying to get the sensation of his soft fur to calm her down. It took her quite a long time to recover for that small breakdown and for her mind to start functioning again.

She made an effort to remember all that had happened in the last day and knew in that moment that there was just one thing to do next.

She had to go and meet Andrew Hozier.

* * *

Andrew felt uneasy while he walked back home after telling his best friend in the whole world to go fuck himself, he felt in his gut the feel of discomfort and inquietude he hadn't felt in a long time.

The street was for the most part empty, the only noises he could hear around him were the sound of his and some other shoes on the asphalt and the distant intermittent sound of the cars racing on the highway.

But inside his head, it was loud. Inside it was rowdy. He was thinking, thinking when he didn't wanted to, his thoughts were filled of her, of Alex, of his life and of what had been of him since he arrived to that place. He was thinking of the infinite sea of possible ways his life could've gone if a lot of the shit he had been through for the last year or so didn't happen. 

His mind got filled with things that could've happened that didn't and things that happen that could've not.

And he felt in his gut the feel of guilt and sadness he had felt for a long time.

* * *

She didn't know why she was doing that. Why would she be driving to the other side of town to meet a man she had been explicitly ordered to kill? From the back of her head, the thought of having lost her mind ran through, and even though she decided to ignore it, for a moment it sting, and hurted and made her really feel like she was becoming crazy.

The drive to his house wasn't long but was tedious, she had the hunch that there was someone following her, and it there wasn't, she still had to be careful, so in every stop she made sure of checking her surroundings and be aware of any weird activity around here.

Almost twenty minutes later, after driving in utter silence and complete anxiety, she arrived to his house.

She debated herself for ten more minutes, having parked the car across the street she didn't really know if she should get off the car and go knock on his door, she didn't know if she should just stay there until she saw him or just don't do shit. 

For a full minute she cursed herself; for following a damn hunch out of spite and for not knowing what to do.

"Fuck it" she said, took of the seatbelt and opened the door, then stood up outside of the car with the door open for another minute and a half. She hated herself in that moment, she hated herself so much for freaking out at a situation that didn't compare to anything she had lived before; that wasn't as dangerous as robbing a house, that wasn't as critical as kidnapping a target without getting noticed, that wasn't as complicated as planning a heist, that wasn't as scary as going out to the world at the age of sixteen without a single penny and only knowing one way of getting money. The difference between all those situations and the one she was in at that moment was that before the robbing, the kidnapping, the planning or the other stuff she had done, she didn't make herself believe she had a normal life.

"Fuck it" she said again, closed the car door and crossed the street, the anxiety hadn't left, the nervousness was there too, and to top it of, she was cold.

There was no doorbell so she knocked on the door twice and waited, she slightly scanned the front porch of the house with no particular interest and knocked again four times.

There was no response.

She wasn't wearing her watch and she'd left her phone back in her apartment, so at the moment she was unsure of the time, she just knew it was pretty late.

Annie knocked again, faster and more desperately, feeling more impatient by the second the door remained closed.

The door was knocked once more, Annie knocked on the wood non-stop until her knuckles started to sore.

And still there was no answer.

"Who are you?" her body froze as she listened to a deep voice behind her.


End file.
